Top Read Story : 50 Reasons Why Traders Lose Money

A company called the Walsh Agency surveyed more than one thousand experienced futures brokers and asked them, in their experience, what caused most future traders to lose money. I think this applies to any trader and have found this to be the best set of rules I have seen and now the are the 50 rules I follow. Half of them seem to be “don’t overtrade” and “cut your losses short and let the winners run” but there are some good rules to follow. I don’t have permission to reprint all of them so I will give you a link at the end but here are my top 50 and then you can read the rest. How many of the mistakes have you made?

1. Most traders liquidate the good trades and keep the bad ones. Many traders don’t realize the news they hear and read has, in many cases, already been discounted by the market.

2. After several profitable trades, many speculators become wild and unconservative. They base their trades on hunches and long shots, rather than sound fundamental and technical reasoning, or put their money into one deal that “can’t fail.”

5. Many people trade with their hearts instead of their heads. For some traders, adversity (or success) distorts judgment. That’s why they should have a plan first, and stick to it

6. Greed causes some traders to allow profits to dwindle into losses while hoping for larger profits. This is really lack of discipline. Also, having too many trades on at one time and overtrading for the amount of capital involved can stem from greed

7. Taking too big a risk with too little profit potential is a sure way to losses

8. Futures traders tend to have no discipline, no plan, and no patience. They overtrade and can’t wait for the right opportunity. Instead, they seem compelled to trade every rumor.

9. Often, traders jump into a market based on a story in the morning paper; the market many times has already discounted the information.

10. Too many traders do not apply money management techniques. They have no discipline, no plan. Many also overstay when the market goes against them, and won’t limit their losses.

11. Staying with a losing position, because a trader’s information (or worse yet, intuition) indicates the deteriorating market is only a temporary situation, can lead to large losses.
Also known as “my gut” tells me.